i am notorious for not carrying cash. im not so notorious for not carrying a credit card, but i’d like to be.

over the course of a recent week, i participated in transactions between me and one of my friends (or my bank) in the following ways:

1. – wepay is an uber-convenient web app that “helps groups easily collect, manage and spend money”. i ski every year with friends i lived in europe with. we use wepay to distribute invoices to the group, collect money and pay the chalet.

2. – the rad little contraption that a recent issue of TIME just named one of the top ten inventions of the year. it pops into the top of your [iPhone, iPod touch (2G+), iPad, Nexus One, Motorola Droid, Motorola Droid X, HTC Droid Incredible, HTC Evo, HTC Hero, HTC Desire, Samsung Galaxy S series, and the LG Ally ] and allows you to swipe a credit card and dump straight to your bank account. businesses and individuals are utilizing this and, i think, it’s going to transform retail (and what can be/where retailed). a recent meal with 12 friends rung up on 1 friends credit card, and before we left the table we had all ‘squared up’, signed with our finger and were even.

3. – i am generally not able to get to the bank when it is open. while i know you can deposit checks via ATM these days, i just don’t trust it. my dad taught me to always deposit with a teller. so while this is a digital mechanism (and not a teller) i get an instant response and verification, so im down with it. also, its in an iphone app so it’s extra cool. the already great chase iphone app was significantly enhanced (at least for me) when they began allowing me to snap a picture of my checks and deposit in that manner. saves me a trip!

4. – for some reason, my friend who owed me money didn’t want to use square. so, we opened our iphone paypal apps, were obviously in the same proximity, and ‘bumped’ to transfer. the transfer was immediate, and i proceeded to dump from my paypal into my bank account. a cinch.

12 months ago – this stuff wasn’t happening. what will 6 more months bring? what are people’s expectations on banking and money transfer in general? is the sector prime for upheaval? i tend to think so. im keeping my eye on , who are looking to shake up our notion of an actual bank and atm network, along with a few non-bank mobile-based account groups to enable lower-income individuals to keep and spend money without going through banks.

Nick,
I’ve heard of Square and have the app on my Droid (X), but haven’t yet ventured into using it. I hadn’t thought of using it in the way you just described. I guess that does solve a major problem for those eat out in groups.
Fascinating!